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Honoring Our Mother and a Noble Servant

By Final Call News | Last updated: Oct 17, 2018 - 9:23:20 AM

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Muslims and family members of Mother Tynnetta Muhammad joined Min. Farrakhan, members of his family and Muslims in laying a wreath at the grave site of the late wife of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, Islamic scholar and artist.

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Cars arrive for wreath laying at the grave of Mother Tynnetta Muhammad during the 2018 Holy Day of Atonement in Detroit. Photos: Haroon Rajaee
WAYNE, Mich.—On a brisk and bright autumn afternoon family and loved ones of Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, wife of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, gathered again to pay honor and respect to a woman whose indelible impact and influence on the heart and minds of men, women and children of the Nation of Islam and the world of Islamic culture and scholarship continues to reign.
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The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, his wife Mother Khadijah Farrakhan and members of their family joined Madeeah Muhammad, Ishmael Muhammad, Rasul Muhammad and Ahmad Muhammad, the children of Mother Tynnetta and her husband during a simple, yet solemn and reflective wreath laying ceremony at her gravesite at Westlawn Cemetery in Wayne, Mich., a suburb of Detroit. The ceremony took place Oct. 13 during the weekend commemoration of the Holy Day of Atonement and 23rd anniversary of the Million Man March.

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Rasul Muhammad is embraced during remembrance of his mother during Holy Day observance in Detroit.
Mother Tynnetta was born and raised in Detroit. There, she was introduced to the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad which propelled her toward a never ending quest for knowledge. She traveled around the world, always representing the Nation of Islam.

She facilitated bridging cultures through Islam and the teachings of her husband. Her passing February 16, 2015 was a shock. It left a tremendous void and sense of loss in the Nation of Islam and in those who loved and cherished her. But Mother Tynnetta Muhammad lives on through her music, fashion, writings and recordings of her lectures, performances and presentations and through the people she taught, nurtured and cultivated. Reprints of her column, “Unveiling the Number 19,” continue to run each week in The Final Call newspaper. Her hometown of Detroit named a street in her honor, “Tynnetta Muhammad Avenue” in the Martin Park neighborhood during the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention in 2017. As her son Rasul Muhammad has often reflected, “Mother Tynnetta is not gone, she is just out of view.”

Tears were shed and family members embraced one another during the ceremony as Min. Farrakhan and Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad slowly and gently placed a wreath adorned with white and blue flowers next to the headstone.

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Min. Farrakhan, his son Mustapha, left, and Ishmael Muhammad, son of Mother Tynnetta Muhammad and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, and Muslims recite prayers at wreath laying at her grave site.

Min. Farrakhan then recited the first chapter of the Holy Qu’ran, “Al Fatiha” in Arabic and shared the following words in homage to a sister, friend, elegant example of womanhood, faithful companion and Mother of the Faithful:

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“Oh Allah, we come to this place giving praise and giving thanks to you for the life of this your servant Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, wife of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Oh Allah, thank you for her life, for her noble example as a student, as a teacher, as a mother and as one who has been a leader of the faithful followers of her husband, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. We pledge this day as the children of such a great mother to carry on her noble work. For we bear witness that there is no death in Islam when we have submitted our life to the Eternal God, to do His Will. This grave cannot praise Allah and in this grave no body can praise Allah but the living work and testimony of Mother Tynnetta Muhammad will always be a praise of God. All her children, all her grandchildren, make this pledge that we will live our lives as she lived hers, devoting her entire being to the perfect worship of the one God Allah who came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad to whom praise is due forever. She lived her life as a student. She studied the words of the Qur’an and the words of her beloved husband and traveled the earth to bring his message everywhere she went and to represent the dignity, the civilization of a Black woman, fashioned by God and His Christ. Oh Allah, this day we pledge our lives to this cause for which we bear witness there is no death for us. Speak not of those who are slain in the way of God or who die in the way of God as dead. They are alive, but we understand not. She lives. She lives in her sons and daughters, she lives in her grandchildren, she lives in all those that will flow from her womb. We thank you Allah for her life and her service. We thank you for the lives of her dedicated sons and daughters and grandchildren. We thank you for the lives of all of us who were touched by her life and are followers of her husband and bear witness that there is no god but Allah who came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad to whom praise is due forever. And, we bear witness the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is His Messenger, Messiah, Exalted Christ, the Son of Man and the first among us to be made again into a god—the Original Man of our people. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in his name, we ask it all. Ameen.”